Book Image

Networking Fundamentals

By : Gordon Davies
Book Image

Networking Fundamentals

By: Gordon Davies

Overview of this book

A network is a collection of computers, servers, mobile devices, or other computing devices connected for sharing data. This book will help you become well versed in basic networking concepts and prepare to pass Microsoft's MTA Networking Fundamentals Exam 98-366. Following Microsoft's official syllabus, the book starts by covering network infrastructures to help you differentiate intranets, internets, and extranets, and learn about network topologies. You’ll then get up to date with common network hardware devices such as routers and switches and the media types used to connect them together. As you advance, the book will take you through different protocols and services and the requirements to follow a standardized approach to networking. You’ll get to grips with the OSI and TCP/IP models as well as IPv4 and IPv6. The book also shows you how to recall IP addresses through name resolution. Finally, you’ll be able to practice everything you’ve learned and take the exam confidently with the help of mock tests. By the end of this networking book, you’ll have developed a strong foundation in the essential networking concepts needed to pass Exam 98-366.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Network Infrastructure
7
Section 2: Network Hardware
11
Section 3: Protocols and Services
18
Section 4: Mock Exams
19
Mock Exam 1
20
Mock Exam 2

Understanding the transport layer

The transport layer of the TCP/IP model performs the exact same role as its counterpart in the OSI model. Namely, it is responsible for controlling communication between the two hosts. As a brief reminder, recall that the transport layer provides the following features:

  • The use of checksums to ensure data integrity
  • The use of sequence numbers to ensure data is rebuilt in the correct order
  • Flow control to ensure the data that's being received doesn't end up flooding the recipient device
  • Multiplexing to allow a host to have multiple connections to another host

The TCP and UDP protocols can be found here again. Think back to the previous chapter. How would you describe each of these two protocols? If you said that TCP was a connection-oriented protocol that uses a system of sequence numbers and acknowledgments, you would be correct....